It is known in the art of computer systems to use timers to schedule events which have to take place in the future. For example, one or more software applications may be running on the computer system which require some periodic activity, such as monitoring the status of a battery or checking the connection to a network. In order to schedule an event, it is known to send a request from the software application to the operating system. The operating system sets a timer in response to the request, which expires at a point in time in the future. Upon expiry of the timer, the event associated with the timer is performed e.g. by executing by a processor program code of the application that requested the timer.
However, a disadvantage of the known systems is that they consume a relatively high amount of power.